Open-Source Apps Find Footing with Portal Products

Review: Both Apache and JBoss have matured to the point where they are viable options for any business looking to build a corporate portal using open-source technology.

At the intersection of the Web and open source, two names stand out.
Apache is the most successful open-source product ever and the engine that drives most of the Web, and JBoss helped take the complexity and cost out of previously high-end Java application servers.

But, somewhat surprisingly, neither of these major players is usually associated with open-source enterprise portal technology, which has been dominated mainly by products such as Plone and PHP-Nuke.

During tests, eWEEK Labs found both products to have extensive customization options, and, being based on open standards, both can be easily developed for.
Jetspeed-2s ability to support non-Java portlets may prove attractive to businesses that use other portal platforms, while JBoss PortletSwap site (www.portletswap.com) offers a selection of prebuilt portlets.
Both products are offered under common open-source licenses: JBoss Portal under the GNU LGPL (Lesser General Public License) and Jetspeed-2 undersurprisethe Apache license.
The Plone Foundations Plone An eWEEK Labs Analysts Choice winner, this open-source product is one of the best solutions, period, for company portals and intranets (www.plone.org)
Click here to read the full review of Jetspeed-2.

Jim Rapoza, Chief Technology Analyst, eWEEK.For nearly fifteen years, Jim Rapoza has evaluated products and technologies in almost every technology category for eWEEK. Mr Rapoza's current technology focus is on all categories of emerging information technology though he continues to focus on core technology areas that include: content management systems, portal applications, Web publishing tools and security. Mr. Rapoza has coordinated several evaluations at enterprise organizations, including USA Today and The Prudential, to measure the capability of products and services under real-world conditions and against real-world criteria. Jim Rapoza's award-winning weekly column, Tech Directions, delves into all areas of technologies and the challenges of managing and deploying technology today.